This invention relates to a device for accurately recording and visually indicating in a convenient and inexpensive manner the consumption of doses of a medication and the precise time the dose was consumed. Many patients, while ill, have difficulty remembering whether or not they have taken their medication and many times where the patient is unconscious, a health care professional must have some accurate means of identifying whether or not a particular medication has been consumed and if so when.
The '087 patent discloses a recordkeeping indicia which allowed recordation of a consumed dosage medication by removal of a friable coating associated with that dosage. However, problems are presented when the indicia of the '087 patent are employed on a container which is kept in a patient's pocket or purse, or when the container is kept with other medications in a drawer in that the friable coatings are often inadvertently removed by contact with objects or containers there adjacent. The integrity of the recordkeeping indicia is thereby jeopardized.
The principal object of the present invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive and accurate visual method and apparatus for recording a patient's consumption of a medication in direct or close proximity to the medication containing vessel while being connected to the vessel.
It is a further object of this invention to assist a patient who is consuming more than one medication by providing a physical recordkeeping device to prevent confusion as to which medications they have consumed and when. Additionally, for nurses and other health care providers caring for a large number of patients, the present invention provides an accurate and easy method of medication recordkeeping administered to each patient.
A further object of this invention is to provide a medication recordkeeping device which protects the integrity of the recordkeeping data.
A further object of this invention is to provide a medication recordkeeping device of inexpensive manufacture adaptable to many forms of medications as well as consumption occurrences and dosages as desired.
Numerous other advantages and features of the invention will become readily apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, from the claims, and from the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the same.